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Tag Archives: British slime moulds

Lycogala slime mould

19 Friday May 2023

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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British slime moulds, Lycogala species, slime mould, Wolf's milk, Wolf's milk slime mould

A train journey to a woodland in the next county earlier this week didn’t turn up the butterflies I was hoping for but I took consolation in the fact that I did see several things I don’t usually see locally. The first of these (the next couple of blogs will feature others) is usually found on rotting trees, so there’s no real reason I don’t see it in local woodlands – maybe it’s just a matter of timing. This is the enigmatic slime mould, Wolf’s milk. It could either be Lycogala epidendrum or L. terrestre but I won’t know which unless I revisit the site in a week or so. I explained the reason for this in two previous blogs (the initial find featured in Wolf’s milk, 16 June 2021, followed by the species reveal Wolf’s milk update, 2 July 2021).

230519 wolfs milk slime mould

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Coral slime

15 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by sconzani in autumn, trees

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Tags

British slime moulds, Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, Coral slime, slime mould, slime mould on dead tree

While out walking on Wednesday I spotted this large expanse of something white on the side of a huge old fallen tree and, of course, I had to investigate.

211015 ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (1)

As I got closer, I realised it was the slime mould Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa, a mass of tiny translucent white tubes, often branched, clustered together like terrestrial coral or sea anemones.

211015 Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (2)

As this plasmodium stage of a slime mould often only lasts a day or two, the timing of my walk was very lucky indeed.

211015 Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (3)

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Wolf’s milk update

02 Friday Jul 2021

Posted by sconzani in fungi

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Tags

British slime moulds, Lycogala slime mould, Lycogala terrestre, slime mould

You might remember that on 18 June I blogged about Wolf’s milk, one of the Lycogala species of slime moulds, and noted that I couldn’t positively identify it until I saw the colour of its spores. Well, I’ve been back to recheck these slime balls. They took a bit of finding, as the dense tree canopy of the woodland makes the area quite dark and their change of colour as the slime balls have matured made them blend in with the log they were growing on, as you can see below.

210702 Lycogala terrestre (1)

The good news is that I have been able to identify them. I ‘popped’ one – not a bad thing for the slime as this released its spores for distribution – and found the spore colour to have a pinkish hue, which confirmed the species as Lycogala terrestre.

210702 Lycogala terrestre (2)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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